LATEST RELEASES NEW FOR 2012 THE WELL UNDER THE SEA Kevan Manwaring 
Imagine an island at the crossroads of time where lost souls find each other… Isambard Kerne, Edwardian antiquarian and First World War observer, missing in action at the Battle of Mons, finds himself in the Afterlands of his Celtic ancestors and has begun the Way of the Windsmith – the path he must take to find his way back home, for he is a man alive in the world of the dead. Having learnt the secrets of Eurus, god of the East Wind, Kerne must sail into the west, to Hyperzephyrus, the Land Beyond the West Wind. With the help of a mysterious boatman called Barinthus, he finally makes it to the fabled Island of the Blessed, Ashalantë, a city in the sea crafted by dreams, where the vision of Plato, Da Vinci, Brunel and others have come to life. Here he has to endure the Circle of Truth and embrace the shadow of his past. He meets Amelia Earhart, legendary American aviatrix of the Thirties, who is assigned to him as his angel to instruct him in the art of flying. As they climb higher they find themselves falling in love, but Priestesses of the Spiral are forbidden to do so. If Earhart breaks her vows, it could shatter the fellowship of the Nine Sisters, and cause the downfall of Ashalantë. Torn between duty and desire, Kerne and Earhart find themselves embroiled in a tragic chain of events that threaten to bring about the destruction of not only this otherworldly paradise, but its shadow: Earth. The Windsmith Elegy volume III Fiction £7.99 - ISBN-10: 1906900329
- ISBN-13: 978-1906900328
Available direct from Amazon here
WINDSMITH Kevan Manwaring 
After being sucked through a portal in No Man's Land during the First World War Battle of Mons, Royal Flying Corps observer Kerne finds himself in another world, fighting for his life against his unpredictable pilot. Modern weapons of war have been introduced to the Bronze Age realm of the ancestors with devastating results. Kerne must learn the Way of the Windsmith - a magician of sacred sound who can summon winds - with the help of Merlin, his feathered guide, if he is to stop his power-mad companion. The power of words is set against the power of swords in a deadly battle for control of Shadow World, Earth's symbiotic twin. War comes to the Afterlands of the ancestors, and only one of the airmen can live if both worlds are not to be torn apart by their anomalous presence. The Windsmith Elegy volume 2 Fiction, £7.99 - ISBN-10: 1906900310
- ISBN-13: 978-1906900311
Available direct from Amazon here
THE LONG WOMAN Kevan Manwaring 
The fully revised 3rd Edition of this classic title from Kevan Manwaring - the first volume in The Windsmith Elegy - now with 'Writing the Long Woman' and a revamped cover by design maestro, Steve Hambidge. An antiquarian's widow discovers her husband's lost journals and sets out on a journey of remembrance across 1920s England and France, retracing his steps in search of healing and independence. Along alignments of place and memory she meets mystic Dion Fortune, leyline-pioneer Alfred Watkins and a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle obsessed with the Cottingley Fairies. From Glastonbury to Carnac, she visits the ancient sites that obsessed her husband and, tested by both earthly and unearthly forces, she discovers a power within herself. The Long Woman is an exploration of the sacred landscapes of the past and the secret landscapes of the soul. Fiction, ISBN 978-1-906900-30-4 £7.99/$12.99Buy from Amazon here
COMING UP
STRANGE SUN TO RISE OVER STROUD 
Strange Sun is a unique collaboration between poet Jay Ramsay, described as ‘England’s leading transformation poet’ (Caduceus magazine, 2008) who has been writing, publishing and also teaching poetry for 25 years, and a distinctive group of local artist-musicians: Herewood Gabriel, with Indian flute, ballaphon, rainstick and djembe; Oogoo Maia (who teaches music locally), with clavicord and harpsichord; and Angie Spencer with violin. The poetry explores and embodies transformational consciousness, and how we are in our lives in recognizing our essence as human beings with what informs that essence that also belongs to higher levels of existence and vibration. It is about ‘what we may be’ as well as what and who we are as men and women. It is a journey into Light which embraces the darkness and the shadow…hence the album’s title. With 25 tracks (51 minutes in all), many of them short, it also features an alchemical prose-poem ‘Rosa Mundi’ (14.58), which includes Fred Hageneder’s memorable harp, and poet Ella Bloomfield’s voice. The music combines a series of unusual sounds working between the melodic and the atonal, the classical and the experimental; and is perfectly blended, timed and attuned to the speaking voice. Recorded and mastered by sound engineer and musician Andrew Butler at D&B Studios, Stroud, it will be launched on Friday June 22nd 8 to 10pm at Five Valleys Foyer across from Star Anise café, where the group will be playing live with all the instruments and copies of the CD will be available at £10. The event itself is free. Copies of the CD will be available at the local record shops and Made in Stroud, and can also be ordered with a cheque (payable to 'Jay Ramsay) to 5 Oxford Terrace, Springfield Rd, Uplands, Stroud GL5 1TW. Listen to Rosa Mundi on Awen's SoundCloud here
THE FIREKEEPER'S DAUGHTER tales of initiation Karola Renard 
From the vastness of Stone Age Siberia to a minefield in today’s Angola, from the black beaches of Iceland to the African savanna and a Jewish-German cemetery, Karola Renard tells 12 mythic stories of initiation, featuring 21st-century kelpies, sirens and holy fools, a river of tears and a girl who dances on fire, a maiden shaman of ice, a witch in a secret garden, Queen Guinevere’s magic mirror and a woman who swallows the moon. The red thread running through them all is a deep faith in life and the need to find truth and meaning even in the greatest of ordeals. Fiction, £9.99 ISBN 978-1-906900-18-2 Place your order today
SOUL OF THE EARTH the Awen anthology of eco-spiritual poetry edited by Jay Ramsay afterword by Anthony Nanson 21 Poets, 1 Planet... Soul of the Earth is an anthology of poetry to inspire hope in humanity. Challenging received wisdom and pushing boundaries, these are cutting-edge poems from a new generation of writers who share a love of the Earth and haven't given up on humans either. Vivid, contemporary voices that dare to explore a spiritual dimension to life o n Earth and, in doing so, imply that a way out of our global crisis of ecological breakdown, financial meltdown, and bankruptcy of the spirit is to look beyond the impasse of materialism. With contributions from poets hailing from USA, Canada, UK, Russia, the West Indies, New Zealand and Australia, this anthology reaches out across the planet to embrace the challenges and triumphs of being alive on the Earth in the twenty-first century. Poetry £11.99 ISBN 978-1-906900-17-5 Order from here today - UK postage free!
IONA - Mary Palmer 2011 Edition with Afterword by Anthony Nanson  What do you do when you are torn apart by your ‘selves’? Mary Palmer tells her story though poems, prose and images. The pilgrim poet, rebel Mordec and tweedy Aelia set sail for Iona – a thin place, an island on the edge. It's a journey between worlds, back to the roots of their culture. On the Height of Storm they relive a Viking massacre, at Port of the Coracle encounter vipers. They meet Morrighan, a bloodthirsty goddess, and Abbot Dominic with his concubine nuns. Omens, chants, curses… During her stay Mordec learns words can heal or destroy, and the poet writes her way out of darkness. A powerful collection, celebrating a journey to wholeness, from an accomplished poet. Poetry ISBN 978-0-9546137-8-5. £6.99
WORDS OF RE-ENCHANTMENT Storytelling, Myth & Ecological Desire by Anthony Nanson  The time-honoured art of storytelling – ancestor of all narrative media – is finding new pathways of relevance in education, consciousness-raising, and the journey of transformation. Storytellers are reinterpreting ancient myths and communicating the new stories we need in our challenging times. This book brings together the best of Anthony Nanson’s incisive writings about the ways that story can re-enchant our lives and the world we live in. Grounded in his practice as a storyteller, the essays range from the myths of Arthur, Arcadia, and the voyage west, to true tales of the past, science-fiction visions of the future, and the big questions of politics and spirituality such stories raise. The book contains full texts of exemplar stories and will stimulate the thinking of anyone interested in storytelling or in the use of myth in fiction and film. Storytelling/Mythology/Environment ISBN 978-1-906900-15-1 £9.99 Place an order today
AVEBURY MOON: our first poetry sampler 
On a warm midsummer's night, under the light of the full moon, three poets visited the ancient stone circle of Avebury, Wiltshire. This triptych of poems is the result of that magical night. Signed/numbered Limited Edition Poetry, RRP £3 FFI: Jay Ramsay, Kevan Manwaring & introducing Dawn Gorman... 
Dawn Gorman is a poet, travel writer & editor of an international maritime magazine. Her poetry has won numerous awards and has been widely published, including her own collection, Looking For Gods. She runs Words and Ears II (an open mic event) in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire.
NEW AWEN AUTHORS HEREWOOD GABRIEL We are delighted to welcome well-known talented Stroud-based artist, Herewood Gabriel, to Awen. His Storytelling Cards are an ideal compliment to our ecobardic list. Exquisitely illustrated by Gabriel, the 40 unique card designs can be used in improvisational storytelling activities, ideal for the school, college or meeting room - for young and old alike. Therapists, teachers, performers and any who use storytelling in their work will find these useful. Whether for work or play, they are inspiring and beautiful to own. They are available for £20 from www.herewoodsart.co.uk (quote 'Awen')
In Memoriam We were saddened to hear of the death of Angela Brien, who designed Dancing with Dark Goddesses - movements in poetry, by Irina Kuzminsky. Condolences to her family - may she rest in peace and may her art live on.
AWEN SUPPORTS INTERNATIONAL TIMES Awen's occasional partner-in-rhyme Niall McDevitt (Rolling Tyger Revue) has become poetry editor for the resurrected International Times. Expect cutting-edge poetry, comment and satire from contemporary voices concerned with the state of Britain and the state of the planet. Contributors include Heathcote Williams. 
ECOPOET PUBLISHES NEW COLLECTION  Helen Moore not only has her own distinctive voice, she has also marked out her own territory, a territory at once local and universal. You could say she has globalised the local or rather localised the global, for her concern is nothing less than our mental and physical sanity, our survival in a dark time. Moore is neither naïve or simplistic. Hers is a sophisticated red/green world view. The ecocidal tendencies bringing about climate change, with its dire consequences for humanity, are not presented or represented in an abstract or noisy way but contextualised as the willed or stupid acts of our official and unofficial rulers. Her poems speak out of the whirlwind, from the depths of her being. They are the laments and keenings of a true makar, speaking to the hearts and minds of those who will listen and then act, before it is too late. She deploys all the registers and possibilities inherent in poetic language — enjambement, meter, rhyme, diction, metaphor — to generate what George Oppen called the "lyric valuables". As it happens, this great American poet admired the work of one of Moore's few predecessors, Jonathan Griffin, and he would have surely admired Helen Moore. Paperback, 90pp, 8.5x5.5ins, £8.95 / $15 ISBN 9781848612013 Available from Shearsman Books
AWEN STORYTELLERS GET INTO PRINT Awen tale-spinners Anthony Nanson, Kirsty Hartsiotis and Kevan Manwaring have had their collections of folk tales published by The History Press. This pioneering series involves professional storytellers collecting and retelling county-based folk tales for a modern audience. Anthony has written Gloucestershire, Kirsty Wiltshire and Kevan Oxfordshire with other titles in the pipeline. They are performing a selection of their stories at Hawkwood College on 23 April - see Diary.  
Folk Tales series available from The History Press 
|
In these renegade poems ranging from 1958-2011 Gabriel Bradford Millar presents a spectrum of life, in all its piquant poignancy, with unfaltering precision, defiance and finesse. From the very first to the very last, the breathtaking skill of this consummate wordsmith does not waver. Many of these poems linger in the air • not least because Millar performs them orally with such verve. She believes: 'that poems, like love-talk, should go from mouth to ear without any paper in between.' On the page, their orality and aurality fragrances their presence without diminishing their literary elegance. Continually astonishing, these epicurean poems offer not only a lasting testimony to a 'life well-lived', but inspires the reader to do the same. Emergency rations for the soul.
About the book:
